Christian Vadim

The fourth film of Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series is a cool, ironic yet compassionate cautionary tale of need, greed, deceit and self-delusion.

July 1976, the year of the heat wave. Claude, an Algerian Jew who came to France 15 years earlier, takes his young wife Isabelle, his two sons Simon (12) and Bibou (8) and his mother-in-law Mamie to Brittany. It was Isabelle who, after having caught Claude in the throes of adultery, chose for this vacation to return to Le Rocher Abraham, the village where she was born. The day after their arrival they are joined by two other couples. The holidaymakers are viewed with distrust by the locals. Algerian Jews from Paris and provincial Catholics don't mix comfortably. But gradually, the suspicion wanes, giving way to friendship, laughter and holiday romance. Over this long hot summer, Claude and Isabelle get their marriage back on track, while Bibou and Simon, spend a memorable summer discovering the world of grown-ups.